From Rejection to Reinvention: How PATH WATER Became a Movement

Hi, thanks for listening to the Tony Robbins Podcast. This is just a quick note about this episode in case you'd rather watch and see the video of this conversation, and that's found at youtube.com/tonyrobbinslive. You'd like to listen? You're in the right place. Okay, here's Tony.

Most of the innovation in the water space had been focused on the liquid inside of the bottle, but not on the actual container, the packaging itself.

Complexity is the enemy of execution. Everyone else is trying to change what's inside. They changed what was outside.

We hired someone overseas to create a list of every single manufacturer in the United States, and we just started calling them. And it was a list of 500 names. We were down to the last 3 on the list. You know, we're sitting on the curb. Our product wasn't moving, was collecting dust on the shelf. We're like, what are we going to do? We have at this point negative $400 in our bank account.

No.

There's no replacement for relentlessness, period.

We're the water company that doesn't want to sell you any more water.

Tell us a little bit, you started out at a very young age being pretty advanced. I was doing some homework on you in terms of, like, you were going to college, doing college courses when you were like 13 or 14 years old.

Yeah, I was blessed. I had great parents that pushed me very hard, you know, that immigrant mindset. Definitely instilled that work ethic. Yeah. My dad is here supporting today, so.

Oh, where's your dad?

He's right here.

Please stand up, give him a hand. You must be so proud, give him a hand. So you grew up in San Francisco area, got Syrian and Jordanian immigrant parents, like you said.

Correct, yeah.

So how did that affect your entrepreneurial spirit or your work ethic or your way, your learning focus?

Yeah, I mean, I was pushed very hard as a kid. I, you know, instead of going out and hanging out with my friends during the summer, I would have to read a book and write a book report for my mom. And at the time, I was not really happy about it. But looking back, that was like the biggest blessing ever, right? That's wonderful. That's wonderful.

Now, you early on started a small business. You went to school, started a small business, and it was related to covers on phones. Is that correct? Am I understanding that correctly?

Yeah, that was one of the first few businesses that I'd started. I'm very entrepreneurially minded, I would say, so I had a bunch of different ideas.

Well, tell us some of those things and how'd they go and what'd you learn?

Yeah, I mean, they all barely got off the ground, if ever getting off the ground. One was a talent company bringing talent to the web. I was part of every business plan competition during high school and college, so. Tried to do an app development company, and I studied finance. I had no engineering background, but I just watched 1,000 YouTube videos and taught myself how to code.

You know, man, for that, that's pretty amazing. It's beautiful. Give him a hand for that, for God's sakes, ladies and gentlemen.

So yeah, I mean, they were all just massive learning lessons and The most recent business that I did, we did okay, we launched on Kickstarter. There was still a lot of bugs to work out, but ultimately, you know, decided to move on to the next idea, and our business license was revoked. There were a lot of, you know, a lot of kinks with the business, and you just take those lessons and you just apply them to the next one.

What did you learn from those, you know, what some people call failures, you turned them into learning. So what did you learn from them?

What did you pull from them? A lot of people call them failures. I kind of like to call them mistakes. Like if you think take one, take two, take three, like in a movie.

I like that.

Yeah. So I would say one of the things that I learned was when you're starting business, I was so focused. I told you I coded the app and I designed the, with my partner, I designed the website. The case and everything. So we spent so much time focused on the product that I forgot that you have to do sales, marketing, fundraising, you know, operations, all the other things that, that are required to create a business. So when we were on to the next idea, one of the things that first came to mind was let's create something that's super simple that we can get on the market quick. And ultimately what I learned through that is a lot of times the simplest ideas can have the biggest impact. Yes. So it's like wheels on a suitcase. Like, why didn't anyone think about that before? Right? Yeah. And so we just took a different approach to an industry that's kind of been stagnant for a long time. And here we are.

So your aha moment, as I understand it, was Christmas Eve or something like that. You're walking through a CVS with two of your co-partners.

Yeah.

And tell us about that whole moment. What happened? What happened that launched this incredible brand?

Yeah, we were sitting in a CVS in the back of a pickup truck just talking about the next trillion-dollar idea. Walked into the store, you know, just a couple of young guys that just thought they could do anything, right? I always say like one of our biggest powers or strengths at the time was that We're in a sense very naive, so someone that might have been in the beverage industry for 30 years would tell you all the reasons why you couldn't do this. And for us, it was like, it's so easy, you know, you just put water in a bottle and you just sell it. How hard can it be? You know, it'll be a billion-dollar business next year. And just having that mindset of like, it's so easy, so easy, you know, that's something that we kept telling ourselves even though So, you know, the journey has been long and a lot of fun, but, you know, definitely have had our challenges just like any business. So, yeah.

But the insight you had that day, you said, related to the plastic bottles, right?

Yeah.

What was it?

I mean, when we looked at the water aisle, we walked into the store, looked at the water aisle, and what we realized was that most of the innovation in the water space had been focused on the liquid inside of the bottle. But not on the actual container, the packaging itself. So that was a lightbulb moment. Why don't we just put water in a reusable, recyclable aluminum bottle instead of single-use plastic? And that was, that was it. We're off to the races.

So how long after— yeah, how long after you decided what you want to do before you guys acted upon it? Tell us a little bit of the stages from insight to actually creating the company.

Yeah, I mean, we wasted no time, I would say. We started—

Because lots of people have a great idea, they get all excited, they don't do anything.

Yeah.

What did you guys do differently?

I mean, first thing we started doing is we made a business plan. We started going on Alibaba and all these websites and just calling manufacturers, you know. One of the things that I made a rule of myself to do was just take every single meeting that I could take. I don't care who I was meeting. I don't care if you're the President of the United States or, you know, the guy that I met on the street. I would take that meeting just to start to create that momentum. Yes. And yeah, created a business plan. We had no money of our own, you know, come from humble beginnings. So we had to find money. So we started going out and pitching investors., and most of our community laughed at us. You're young, this is a horrible idea, it's never gonna work. Um, and yeah, that was kind of the nemesis, or the beginning of the story for us.

And tell us some of the early stages. I know in the very beginning, I think you got friends and family to help you, if I understood correctly. First of all, you were struggling, right? You were doing DoorDash, and tell us what you were doing while you were trying to build the company.

I was driving Uber, working at an Italian restaurant on the weekends. Serving tables. And, you know, luckily I had the opportunity to live at home with the parents, so that was a huge blessing. I think a lot of young folks these days just want to get out of the house as quickly as possible, but I was like, free rent, you know, I can definitely take advantage of that. So, but yeah, we basically took this business plan and started pitching as many people as we could. We eventually stumbled upon this random investor that said, I could either invest in you guys $50,000 or I could go buy a toy. But if I buy a toy, I know I'll actually enjoy it. With you guys, I'm not so sure. They're very happy now. But, but yeah, they took a chance on us. Actually, at the beginning they didn't want to do the deal, but they said, if you can prove sales, then we'll invest. And I think that, you know, one of the biggest lessons that I learned early on was that sales is kind of the cure-all. If you can show that there's demand, even if it's fake, you know, so we went to— to be honest, we went, we found a customer, and we begged them to give us a PO, purchase order, for $3,000. And we're like, we're not even gonna cash it in, just put it on paper. We took it, we slapped it on the table, and we're like, "Invest," and they invested. So, yeah.

Well, I guess if Bill Gates can call a company and say, "I've got software for you," and he didn't have any software, maybe you could do the same. I think it's do you make it. Tell me though, I think you originally, if I remember, if my notes are right, looking up, I saw you made like 10,000 bottles of water initially.

Yeah.

It tasted like tea? Yeah. What happened?

Yeah.

It's not an auspicious start, huh?

Yeah, it was tough times at the beginning. I mean, we— to find a manufacturer after we raised a little bit of money, designed the product, we went on one of these websites and hired someone overseas to create a list of every single manufacturer in the United States, phone numbers, contact info, and we just started calling them. And it was a list of 500 names. We were down to the last 3 on the list, and we basically begged this guy to manufacture our product because if you're producing for massive beverage brands, you know, there's a new brand, you don't even know if they're gonna pay on time. Like, it's a— it's too much of a risk to bring in a new customer like that. So anyways, we convinced this guy to produce our product, and But what we figured out, what we didn't know at the time, is that you can't produce water at a juice manufacturer. So we produced 10,000 bottles, shipped them across the US from the East Coast to the West Coast where I'm born and raised. We pop the bottle open, taste it, and it tastes like juice or tea or had some off taste, you know. So what we did is we had to actually— we had another 10,000, 15,000 bottles sitting at the manufacturer. We couldn't ship them out. We had spent a lot of the money that we had. So we had no choice but to produce there the rest of the product. So my co-founder, who's our chief operating officer, read this massive book about how to clean these machines. We flew out to their facility. I pulled them in to the conference room to, you know, talk terms or, you know, chat about things. He went in the back and he ordered all the detergents and the acids and went in these giant beverage vats and jumped in, poured 3 times the recommended amount of detergents and acids, started scrubbing, you know, scrubbing the inside, the insides. And yeah, we produced the product. It tasted a little bit off, but it was 100% safe. But we— if you served it cold, you didn't really taste it. So, and then we would just tell people it's the electrolytes, you know, spring water. So we started going door-to-door to 7-Elevens and selling these products, and we would always in the car, we would have a cooler with us to make sure the water was cold so that when they tried it, you know, wouldn't taste too off, but yeah, that's how I started out.

You said you got, you went through hundreds or 200 nos to get your first yes. Tell us about that, because that's usually what stops people, right? They just try a few things, it doesn't work, and they give up.

Yeah, I mean, there was something I heard recently that really resonated, which is like, every time you hear a no, you should say thank you, because that person is doing you a favor. They're just bringing you one step closer to the yes, right? So if you look at it that way instead of like, this person is rejecting me, you know, it'll just allow you to continue to push forward.

So you sold those initial 10,000 bottles, you pulled it off. Yeah. And then, as I understand it, you got $200,000 in financing, you're 25 years old, this is back in 2016.

Yeah.

And you're still not finding a real distribution channel. Yeah. You're being rejected, rejected, rejected, and then you decided to focus on 7-Eleven. Tell us about what happened with that.

Yeah, so what we realized at the beginning, we thought, you know, at the beginning we thought you need to identify your core customer, your target consumer, you know, all of this business speak that we had learned. So we thought, okay, sustainability-minded, you know, maybe they're shopping at Whole Foods or one of these natural food stores. So that's where we originally started to sell into. But what we didn't realize is that in a natural food store, the water aisle is like a football field. You know, there's 30 brands on the shelf, you're getting slotted in on the bottom shelf, and so you don't really get any visibility, which is the number one seller of consumer packaged goods, food and beverage. And so we had, you know, we're sitting on the curb, our product wasn't moving, was collecting dust on the shelf. We're like, what are we going to do? At this point, negative $400 in our bank account. And we're like, okay, let's pivot, let's go after 7-Eleven. And what we realized in 7-Eleven is that there's one fridge for water, and the store owners are allowed to slot in 20% of the products into the store.

Make their own choices.

Exactly. So next morning, we met up 4 AM, we drew a map, just Google Maps, every single 7-Eleven in Northern California. And we're off to the races and we just would literally load up 60 cases of water in the back of my Prius with the bumper hanging off the back and low riding because water is very heavy. And we would just sit in the parking lot of these stores sometimes for hours on end until the store owner shows up. Once they show up, we would go in and make a deal at all costs. And what was your pitch?

What was your irresistible offer?

I mean, it was— well, at first we would pitch them on the product, right? Sustainable. The consumers are looking for this. We're in the Bay Area. It's a very forward-looking, progressive area. So they kind of got the no plastic thing, but a lot of them were very hesitant, you know, for various reasons. So if they absolutely did not take the product, we would say, this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to give you a case for free. But you give me the best shelving, you know, eye level, right by the handlebar, you give me at least 3 slots, which, you know, that's very important within beverage, and this product's going to sell. And I'm going to come back in a week, and in a week, if the product is sold, you're going to buy 10 cases. And every time it's sold.

Give him a hand for that irresistible offer. Awesome job. Tell people how many— you just— they were just cold calling 7-Elevens, you and your team. How many 7-Elevens you call on? How many did you line up?

Yeah, I mean, how many did you make into customers for you? Every single— we were in every single 7-Eleven in Northern California in 30 days.

Give him a hand for that. Incredible. Yeah, incredible. Irresistible offer. What's like 220 locations or something?

And it's You got to drive all over the Bay Area. It's not an easy thing. You know, 2 cars, 3 guys just delivering sales, you know, all the things.

So one of the first billionaires I ever met when I was like 24 years old, I remember sitting down with him and I asked him, I said, what made you a billionaire? Because he sold items that were like water, right? Something anybody could have. He sold screws and oils and things of that nature. And I'll never forget, he said, Tony, I, I overdeliver, I overservice underserviced markets.

Yeah.

In other words, he would go to China, or he'd go to India, or if he was in New York, he wouldn't go to the top of the hospital, he'd go to the bowels of the hospital, Father Jander, who bought everything, and overservice him.

Right.

It was interesting, when you went to the health food store, you had all this competition.

Yeah.

But when you went to 7-Eleven, there really wasn't any.

Yeah.

You overservice an underserviced market.

You got it.

Yeah, really amazing. Tell me, so from there, things started to take off a little bit. What I was really impressed when you and I first met was just by the core chutzpah of just, we're gonna do whatever it takes. They're down minus $400 and we're just gonna find a way. And that's really what makes an entrepreneur successful.

Burn the boats, right?

But then it started to take off on a whole different level. And what really struck me was you don't spend any money on marketing. Explain to people what's happened. I mean, you got a product here where the actual item costs you almost nothing. It's the outside product that costs something physical. But your marketing, you have no money you're spending on marketing and you're doing, you're the fastest growing, what's the exact description?

Yeah, we're in the Inc. 5000 fastest growing beverage brand in the United States.

Give him a hand for that, pretty amazing, right? Doing about $100 million and just exploding. You've got some amazing investors right now. Mention who your investors are, but then tell us what's happened with your marketing. This is pretty wild.

Yeah, I mean, we've been very blessed. It blows my mind, I mean, to have you as an investor, but to also have You know, people like Kevin Hart, Travis Scott, Shakira, Michael Jordan, and a bunch of other really cool names are on the table. So, yeah, that's—

and what's been the market? What's made it take off like that? What's made people so excited?

Well, first of all, I think if you have like the celebrities and the athletes and all of that is amazing and a huge blessing. But like I always say like we have a brand that stands on its own. And ultimately the way I look at it is that we're giving more value to the consumer because for the same price as a plastic bottle of water, around $3 on the shelf, you're getting a bottle of water and a reusable bottle, right? So on a per-use basis, if you're holding onto that bottle, reusing it 5, 10 times, now it's more value for the consumer just inherently. Beyond the sustainability, etc. But then we took it a step further and we started doing this— we launched this program called Partnering to Save the Planet. It's a co-branding program. So we started to actually use half of the real estate of our product because it's a reusable bottle. Now it's become more than a reusable bottle or a bottle of water. It's actually this marketing opportunity. And so we started partnering with, you know, all types of organizations. We do water for SpaceX, Chanel, Alo Yoga, Nobu, state parks, airports, schools. The list goes on and on. Over 1,000 co-brand partners. And so now they kind of do the marketing for us, right? If you go to an Orangetheory Fitness, a lot of these studios, they're building a pyramid of Pathwater Orangetheory branded product in the middle of the studio, unsolicited. Because now they have a sense of ownership in the sustainability messaging, in the partnership, and it's something that they're proud to show off. So, you know, it's been this like interesting flywheel, as they call it. That's—

Give them a hand for that. That's pretty amazing. It feels good in your hand, but also it's PBA-free, right? So there's no— there's a plastic container, but it has no leakage whatsoever. Correct. So you're not taking aluminum in your body either.

Correct.

And explain to people what happens with plastic versus aluminum when you go to try and to refer—

Yeah, well, I mean, there's of course like the whole thing about microplastics and how microplastics are being found in our body, in our stomachs, in our brains, and even in embryos they're finding microplastics. It's absolutely crazy. And so this is an issue that really needs to be solved. And, you know, I always say like, We're not saving the turtles and the whales anymore, we're literally saving ourselves at this point. And so yeah, beyond that, there are no chemicals leaching into the water, so PFAS and too many other chemicals, you know, you see those plastic bottles, they're transported hundreds or thousands of miles in the heat, in the sun, and so our product allows consumers to get away from that and make better choices.

Yes. Yeah. What's really interesting too is you should have received it. Did you guys get a bottle of water here out here? Great. How, you know, the idea here that you have this, you're saving, helping save the planet, you're having fresh water. There's nothing unique about the product and yet there is now because you've got alkaline water as well.

Yes.

By the way, most alkaline water, if you go test that, I always test mine, it's not alkaline by the time you get it. What do you guys do? It's still like 8.5, 8.7 when I was testing it. Yeah. What do you do? Do you do anything different or is it the container that helps it? What is it?

We have just a great, really high-quality manufacturer that we work with, and we just really focus on quality.

Now, it's counterintuitive. Remember we talked about breakthroughs are counterintuitive? It's very counterintuitive to think that, okay, I'm gonna have something I can refill and still make money. But what actually happens? How often do people refill these versus just normally use them? Talk a little bit, like, you know, we've got Business Mastery on here, you know, the NBA's doing this. Tell us, how is it having that sustainability? It's pretty nice when you have super high-end brands giving this product to somebody, it gives you, and you're not paying anything for it. I mean, that's the genius of this process. But tell us about the reusability and, you know, do people refill them? Do they not?

Yeah, I mean, on average, our consumers are reusing around 6 to 7 times and then they're recycling them, dropping them, denting them, whatever it may be, and going and grabbing another one. We're kind of like, if you imagine that really expensive reusable bottle and that crappy plastic bottle kind of had a baby. We feel that we're like the hybrid, right? We're filling that massive gap in the market, breaking down barriers for consumers to make sustainable choices at an affordable price. And that leads to this mass market solution, right?

Good man. Beautiful job.

But yeah, I would say that the reusability aspect, just like in the video, it's very counterintuitive, right? It's It doesn't make any sense because in the beverage space you want to sell as many units per store per week. That's the main KPI. But for us, the way that we look at it is that we believe that consumers are going to vote with their dollars for products that they believe are authentically solving a problem and not just riding a trend, you know, trying to make a bunch of money. So one of my mentors taught me something that really stuck. He said, in the marketplace, authenticity is undefeated. That's great. So that's how we position ourselves.

Nice job. Tell me about the difference between recycling plastic versus aluminum, because people may not understand the difference there. How much of plastic really gets recycled and how fast is aluminum recycled by comparison?

Yeah, so there's a lot of misinformation in the marketplace about the recyclability and the recycling of plastic. Plastic actually doesn't get recycled, it gets downcycled. So every time plastic goes through the recycling process, it loses quality. So a plastic bottle will not make another plastic bottle versus aluminum, much higher rate of recycling. I think the plastic recycling rate is actually less than 5% and aluminum is over 75%. Yes. So consumers just automatically know to recycle aluminum more often. But then aluminum is kind of the magic material because an aluminum bottle or can, within 60 days of it being placed into the recycling bin, will be another aluminum product on the shelf with the same exact consistency and integrity of material.

Yes.

So, yeah, it's a high quality and a very valuable product. Actually, recycling centers don't make any money from recycling plastic, plate, paper, or glass, they make all their money from recycling aluminum and other high-quality metals.

Now, when you first approached me on this, I said, well, it's wonderful, it's aluminum, but, you know, aluminum gets in your system, you get dementia. But actually it has an internal plastic. And why does that not leach? So people have a sense of that as well.

Yeah, so it's, it's just, um, a higher quality, um, material that's sprayed on the inside, so it's a very thin layer. But just like any can, whether it's a can of Coke or whatever product it may be, it has that internal liner that's BPA-free, doesn't have any chemicals in it, and just higher quality than PET plastic, which is what you'll see in a plastic bottle.

It also makes you more green because you're not like Fiji Water shipping the water on a boat across the ocean because it can be refilled locally because you use filtered water, correct?

Exactly. So we actually started as a spring water and we switched to purified for that exact reason. You know, it doesn't really make sense. Like, if you're drinking a Fiji in China, it's shipped from Fiji to China and then, you know, traveling thousands and thousands of miles. Our product, we switched to purified because you can literally plug in a machine anywhere in the world and have the same exact consistency of product. So we always thought on a global scale. I think in today's marketplace, we live in a global community, global business market. Lines are just— borders are just lines on a map. And so we always had that global positioning in mind, and this is a global issue, we have a global solution. And so we very quickly switched from a Spring to a Purified for that reason.

I love that you've started with nothing, you've built this thing up, and that you really used guerrilla marketing. Tell people about how you got into airports early on. Yeah, became dominant in airports.

Yeah, if any of you have flown through San Francisco Airport or Los Angeles International, you know, really any airport in the US, we have, we have presence today. But SFO was a huge catalyst for our brand. I love to tell this story because it's one of the, one of my favorite hustle stories. So SFO was banning single-use plastic in 2019, and And we knew the ban was going into place, but we couldn't get through security check to talk to all the retailers and distributors. So what we would do is we would book a flight on Expedia, 24-hour free cancellation, go through security, cancel the flight every single day for 6 months going up to that ban. And we replaced— thank you. We became essentially the exclusive water in SFO Airport, replacing over 5 million single-use plastic bottles in one of the largest international hubs in the world.

Awesome, awesome. Um, tell us how you got— like, you have I Love New York. You know, when I talk about brands, you've got this, the city of New York City. Yeah, they never went with anyone else. Tell us how you got them, for example, and how you've gotten NBA teams and how they look at this why they've gotten rid of their other water and replaced it with yours.

Yeah, I mean, we're definitely taking a lot of market share from the big beverage brands, and we love to do it. Um, but we were just walking around New York, uh, a year, year and a half ago, and saw the I Love New York logo. So outside of the collaborations, what we thought is we wanted to make sustainability fun and engaging for consumers. Right, so the way we thought about it was a lot of times sustainability is boring, it's expensive, and it's inconvenient, right? So number one, we're bringing the convenience factor by putting our product, you know, on the shelf with other bottled waters. Why is bottled water the, the biggest category in all consumer in history? Is because of the convenience factor. So we made it convenient, we brought in a low price point. But to make it fun, we thought to start collaborating with different IPs or licenses, right? So we started partnering with Hasbro and Nickelodeon, Mattel, which is Barbie, Snoopy, etc., and launched this licensing division where we would put SpongeBob on a bottle or Minions or you know, Jurassic Park, whatever it may be. And the whole idea there was that you don't have to really care about sustainability to love SpongeBob, right? But as a byproduct of that, you're doing something that's better for your health and better for the environment. So now we have this massive licensing division, you know, on a, on a global scale. We're selling in 12 countries, and it's, it's been super exciting and successful. We just launched Hello Kitty, which I'm super excited about. But the I Love New York, we were just walking around New York. We saw the I Love New York. We walked by like a souvenir shop and we're like, why don't we get that license? And so immediately we had a contact that connected us with the licensing people. And what they told us is that the past 17 beverage brands that had approached them, they turned them down. But because we aligned with them from a sustainability standpoint, Within 2 weeks, we had a contract signed with them. So yeah, that was— and now it's all over New York in souvenir shops, airport, you know, retailers, bodegas, etc. Sports teams has also been a huge growth avenue for us. And so we do the water exclusively for the Sacramento Kings, Denver Nuggets. We're about to finish a deal with the Dallas Mavericks and a bunch of other bunch of other teams, and so—

So tell us what water they have and what you replace and why they were willing to do it.

I mean, give you an example with the Denver Nuggets. That's Ball Arena, which used to be called Pepsi Arena. And so we took that contract from Pepsi, and Pepsi owns Aquafina. And so we were able to do this case study after launching with Ball Arena that showed that we increased water sales for the arena by 300%. And so just because of the branding, because it's a higher quality product, and because people were willing to pay more compared to Aquafina, we were able to, to really make an impact at these stadiums and arenas. And stadiums are constantly looking for ways to drive incremental revenue. So it's like a win-win-win for everyone. Plus it's branded. So now the consumers are taking them home. Showing it off, it's like a novelty item. So there are a ton of benefits, and yeah, we're taking that market by storm.

And you're also, you're getting margin, right? Because instead of spending money on advertising, you're actually getting paid by people to put their brand on there.

Right.

So what has that done to your margins?

Oh yeah, it's, so the beverage space is very competitive, It's, you know, you're battling on the shelf. It's literally a war on the shelf. I mean, I walk into a lot of the stores and I'll literally push other brands to the side, pull our products up. I mean, it's hand-to-hand combat, right? But I would say with these types of co-brands, like, what we do is we created a contract that makes us the exclusive bottled water within those organizations. So we're not competing with anyone. We like to call it the, the blue ocean strategy. If you've heard of that methodology, the red ocean is like, you know, bloody. You're, you're, you're fighting, you're trying to survive on the shelf. But the blue ocean is where no one else is going. And so when everyone goes this way, we go that way. And so we're locking in exclusive 1 to 3 year contracts with all of these organizations, over 1,000 organizations today. And because we're offering a service that no one else is offering, we're able to charge a premium. And so we're, you know, in traditional retail you're paying what's called trade spend, which is promotions, 2 for 1, buy one get one free, whatever it may be. When we're selling at Nobu, we're not putting any promotions on, right? So not only are we charging more, but we're not our margin is protected from those promotions. So we're making significantly more margin in those areas. We still sell in retail because it's still important to be at retail, but it allows us to get profitable way sooner than honestly any other beverage brand that I've seen the financials of, which is many. So yeah, I mean, profitability being like profitability-minded and driving towards that is, is always top of mind for us.

Well, usually in the water business or any business of this nature, beverage business, it takes quite a little while for you to get to profitability, right? How long you guys been in business now actively? What's your rate of growth now and where are you going?

Yeah, I mean, we're essentially doubling or so every year, um, and we are I mean, this is a multi-billion dollar opportunity, so we've barely scratched the surface of what we have the opportunity to accomplish. But definitely have a big tailwind behind us, and the news is out, it's hitting the headlines about how bad plastic is, so that's helping us out a lot. We're by far the leaders in the sustainable water space. We hold over 50% market share in that space, and hopefully that'll just continue to widen as we go forward.

And tell people, what's your barrier to entry, someone competing with you?

So we did something that was really special. Um, after a couple years, we— what we did is we're really good at forming relationships, really deep relationships. So even when we were doing 7-Elevens early on, I mean, there were some 7-Eleven owners that would literally take out all the water out of their fridge and give us 2 fridgefuls of, of our product, right? Um, But one of the things that we were able to do is partner with the only manufacturer in the United States that could produce this durable, reusable beverage container. And so we essentially brought their beverage business back, you know, started very small but grew over time. And eventually we convinced them to do something that's not typical for a manufacturer, which is to give us an exclusivity. And they gave us a 1-year exclusivity, then we renewed for 2, then we renewed for 3. And just earlier this year, we renewed with them for an additional 10 years. So for the next 10 years—

Damn for that, beautiful job.

—any other product on the market in this container. Yeah.

By the way, I'm going to follow up with you. I have an idea that I want to share with you about this container. I love it. Because it's exclusive. I love it. Tell us, if you would, at this point, what do you think is— what would be your advice to entrepreneurs that feel like they don't have the resources? Because one of the reasons I was so impressed by you Like myself, I start with nothing. You start with nothing and every rejection you have going forward, found a way. Every time you've bumped into something, I'm sure there'll be other challenges in the future, but you're aligned with what our last speaker said, right? You're aligned with a major trend, to say the least, and you've blocked out some of your competition and you've got a major momentum. What would your advice to people that feel like they just don't have the resources? What separated you? Because you could have easily just had this idea and given up.

You didn't? Yeah, well, I gotta say, early on when I was trying to maximize— and this is the first thing I told you when, when we spoke— when I was trying to maximize myself, you know, being in Northern California, I would drive 45 minutes to an hour every single day, and I was just on YouTube constantly listening to your videos all day long, all day long. I mean, so that had a massive impact on me. The first You know, for the first 3.5 years we made $0. After that, the first $4,000 I made, I took my whole family, 7 people, to UPW in San Jose. That was massively impactful. Oh, that's awesome. That's wild. So, you know, the psychology aspect of it, I think, is, is super critical. But one of the things that you say that really resonates with me is, is the idea of resourcefulness, right? It's not about not having the resources. It's about being resourceful, right? And just being willing to like stick your neck out there and say, hey, I'm doing something and can you help me? Right? And, and people want to help you, you know. And the way I look at it with all the investors that have put their hard-earned money into the business or all the partners, all the customers, is that at the end of the day, I'm putting my blood, sweat, and tears into building something that I truly believe in. And I'm trying to bring people along for the journey because you can't do anything alone. Yeah, right. So the more I can recruit people to be part of this mission and part of this journey, the more impact we're going to make. And of course, it's a risk. You know, people are putting their money in. It's not easy to ask people to take money out of their pockets and give it to you with something that, you know, is a dream, right? But But really, if you can flip your mindset and say, I'm giving these customers, investors, partners an opportunity to be part of this journey, and I'm putting in the most valuable asset of all time, which is your time, right? That's something that you cannot get back. So, um, so, you know, it— I look at it more as giving others an opportunity, and, and that kind of shifted the mindset and, and allowed me to just kind of be shameless and relentless, you know, and just say, hey, like, you want to be a part of this? And if the answer is no, thank you. On to the next conversation, on to the next one. And, you know, people might have various reasons for saying no, right? They might say no because they're not in the right mind space or they're not in the right financial position or whatever it may be, right? I don't need to figure out why. They said, "No, I just need to get to that yes." Yes. Right?

There's no replacements for relentlessness, period. Period. Period. Give him a hand. That's beautiful. Did you— so you've already saved half a billion plastic bottles from going into recyclable environments or non-recyclable environments, the oceans and so forth. And your goal is 10 billion. Yeah. And it looks like you're really on target to do that. When you had that first aha moment at CVS, did you ever imagine it would be that size and scope or Did you have that vision at that point or did it evolve?

I mean, to be honest, the number in my head was always, we got to get to $2 billion in sales. So I'm still, still not there yet. But for some reason, that's just the number that we set and we've just been driving towards that. But, you know, you always got to set a big, hairy, audacious goal, right? You got to do something that's beyond what you could even fathom or imagine. And Even for us to get to— I mean, for me to be sitting here is mind-blowing, first of all. And I'm very humbled and honored to be here. I'm so thrilled to have you.

Let's give him a hand for starters here, ladies and gentlemen. Shadi! Yes, let's do a couple questions.

Yes. Just like to say thank you so much for sharing your story. I'm here with my dad, who I'm trying to inspire, my mom, CEO of their company. What you said about your parents really resonated with me. I'm standing on the shoulders of my parents who have raised me to be, I'd say, pretty good, and I hope one day to be incredible like you. I just wanted to thank them publicly just now. Oh, that's beautiful.

Good man for that. Thank you.

My question is kind of about being a David in a David and Goliath situation. As you were saying, you've got these massive beverage companies who, you know, could change your business overnight. And you talked about getting the exclusivity for 10 years with your bottle manufacturer. What I wanted to ask is, what else are you doing to make sure that that path has a, like, a path to go on? How are you protecting yourself from the likes of Pepsi, Coke, and all those other huge companies? 'Cause that's one thing that scares me is someone could come in tomorrow and just take it all away from me if I start something, 'cause that's what I wanna do.

That's one of the reasons I wanna bring Shadi, because I wanted you to see you're able to compete. As I told you the other day, you look at Airbnb competing with Hilton, right? You look at Uber comparing with Ford, right? These are giant companies, been around hundreds of years with billions of dollars, but today you can compete if you have that irresistible offer, irresistible product element.

But what's your answer to that question? No, it's a really good question. I would say, look, these big companies, their biggest Achilles heel is that if you think about it, if you're flying a massive airplane, right, for you to adjust 10 degrees is going to take an incredible amount of power, right? Versus if you're flying a little jet, you can maneuver, you can change, you can pivot very easily. Right, so one of the things that Coca-Cola can spend $100 million launching whatever they want, but at the end of the day, the execution, it will never be the same as a focus group of people that are just driving towards a single point. So we're able to collect feedback from the market very quickly and make adjustments, and we're constantly listening to, listening to our customers and trying to tweak things, improve things. The co-branding model that we've done, it doesn't really make sense for a big beverage brand to do this small scale of collaboration. You know, we made 1500 bottles or 2000 bottles for this event here. For a big beverage brand to do that, it doesn't really make sense because they're pumping billions and billions of bottles of beverages into the marketplace, right? But for us, because we started at a very small scale and grew over time and built the supply chain around this concept, it allows us to, to build it to scale and, and to grow into that over time. So, you know, the execution aspect, I think, for any young and fast-growing brand is it cannot be matched by a large corporation. They have systems and processes that are in place that for them to make any changes, it takes a long time, takes a lot of energy. And so that's our superpower.

Think about it, we talked about the other day, complexity is the enemy of execution. Think how complex these organizations are. You're not gonna whip a U-turn with a Queen Mary. Yeah. Right? But if you have less complexity, think about the product. It's so simple, it's so clear. You don't have to do an infomercial to explain for 30 minutes why you might wanna try this product. In a matter of seconds, people understand it. They can see it, they can feel it, they understand it, they can go. So the simplicity has been a huge part of this. The fact that they aren't complex and the fact that they're able to move at the tempo they have. So, because I'm an investor, so I had the same thought process. How do you protect? What are you going to do? I also thought the material here— think about it— everyone else is trying to change what's inside. They changed what was outside. It's the only one that did. Now, could somebody else do it? Yes. But that's why I was fascinated by making sure they protected themselves in this 10-year guarantee. I'm the only company that does this right now. Could someone else come up with it? Yes, but they've already got a huge business. So it opens up the door. There's always an opportunity for someone who can find a better way. That's what we talked about. What is all business? Innovation and marketing. They innovated in the simplest way and they marketed in a brilliant way that cost them nothing for the marketing. It's absolutely spectacular and it's a virtuous cycle because it does good for society, good for the person, good for the companies, good for those that market with them. Pretty amazing. Give me a hand. Thank you very much for your question. One or two more. Back here.

Yes, sir. First of all, congrats on being resilient and freaking unstoppable. Like, I wish my kids were here to hear you speak. My wife and I have 6 kids and they are very entrepreneurial minded, but I would say this generation somehow gives up too easily, it seems. And so what was the one thing, the one role model, the one event, piece of advice, or what gave you that sort of mindset to persevere when things were so tough and you were getting hundreds of nos? Like, what can we tell our youth about persevering and just going forward when they have an idea but it just seems too hard?

It's a very good question. I would say, look, what really, to be honest, what really drove me early on was that we, Weren't like— there was always a financial pressure on the family, right, on my family. And so I wanted to be the one to be able to break my family free of that, repay my parents for everything they put into me, and just give them a sense of peace of mind and financial freedom. And so that really drove me early on. I was willing to work 7 days a week. And people have different whys, right? And my why has evolved since then. Since then. But I think, I think people act when they're either like going towards pleasure or they're in pain, right? And so like, I think not having a safety net, to be honest, and making them feel struggle and like they have no, you know, like they have to do it kind of. You know, hacking into that why essentially is my answer. Because if that's always in the back of your mind, then, you know, that, that just drives you. So yeah, I was willing to work whatever hours were required, 7 days a week, night and day to make that happen. And it just, it always, I guess it starts with the why.

And by the way, I couldn't agree more. Unfortunately, where society is doing so well as a whole, even though not everyone's doing equally well, that when everything you can go on and get on your phone instantly, pretty much for free, it's not the kids' faults. It's the kids have grown up in an environment with such abundance that they don't have to work for that. You know, not having a net was what drove me. And then that started it. Then like yourself, then not having a net, want to make sure your future family, your family doesn't suffer. But then there's like, what's my mission? Yeah, the common denominator— I hope you're hearing the pattern here and with our last speaker as well, you know, with Panera— is that it's having something larger than yourself that you want to serve, whether it be your family to help them free financially, or whether it's to change society, or combinations thereof. If it's just to get the economics alone— it wasn't good economics, economics to free his family, That's different than just, "How do I make myself be okay?" We all need something greater than ourselves. If there's something that you care about more than yourself, it'll pull you. Push runs out, right? Push energy is motivation, I'm trying to push this thing. Pull is, I'm called, there's something I'm called to do. Then you have unlimited energy, then you have the capacity to push through all the nos, you have the capacity to do anything. So helping your kids create a compelling future of something they're trying to support or create is critical. And having them have to be able to stand on their own is the other one, which most parents don't do today. The kids don't. I only saw the study the other day. I didn't believe it was true. And then I read a second study and it was— shows that 76% of Z generation have taken a parent to a job interview with them. 76%. I said, that's impossible. Then I read another one. It was a study done with employers. Saying a very similar statistic. I mean, I couldn't even imagine that, but we have taught them that we're there for them all the time. I haven't done that with my kids, but most people have. And so as a result, they don't have to develop any muscle. If a child never breaks a bone, they're going to be fearful breaking their bones. But if someone's broken several bones growing up, you're not afraid, just go out there and do it. And so I think sometimes the protection we offer to try to comfort and support weakens the psychology of the kids that we have. So I invite parents to challenge their kids and to do what's difficult. Most parents aren't willing to do that today, but I wouldn't be here, he wouldn't be here, most people who are successful in what they do wouldn't be there unless they had something that was a push that turned into a pull.

Yeah, and I think over time, as you mentioned, it's evolved. Like, one of the things that I've learned from you is, is How to really hack into fulfillment and the idea that the most selfish thing that we can do is to give to others. Yes. And so I truly believe that. And now it's still something that's greater than myself, but driving towards that impact and creating value add for everyone that I interact with and community and the global community at large is is really, really important.

But it also gives you inner joy. You know, it's something that money can't buy you, right? You know, you've done something that's incredibly difficult. That, you know, people talk about self-esteem. I hate that term. It's so overused. Well, I have no self-esteem because when I was growing up my parents said these things to me. How convenient you remembered that shit and you didn't remember the other things they said to you, right? And what's really interesting is someone could tell you your whole life you're beautiful, you're intelligent, you're smart, and you cannot believe it. And someone tells you your whole life you're a piece of crap, you'll never amount to anything, and some part of you can say, "I'll show you." Excuse me. "I'll show you." I guess that's still inside me. That driving force is available. It has nothing to do with it because what gives you esteem for yourself is doing difficult things over and over again, because no one can take that from you. When you know you've done something that's seemingly impossible, It doesn't matter what other people think. No one can take away that esteem for you of yourself because you've earned it. You earn it with yourself. You don't earn it by compliments from other people. You, man. Thank you very much. Thank you. Let's have a big hand for Shadi. The Tony Robbins Podcast is inspired and directed by Tony Robbins and his teachings. It's produced by us, Team Tony. Copyright Robbins Research International.